The name Edradour is first mentioned in 1837, but a 'farm' distillery
under the name Glenforres was founded in or around 1825. Once many
of these small distillery were operational in Perthshire, but Edradour is
the only one to survive to this day. Until Kilchoman on Islay became
operational in 2005 Edradour was Scotland's smallest distillery with an
annual production capacity of 90,000 litres (the same as Kilchoman).

The Edradour distillery is located in the Southern Highlands, better
known as the Midlands. Bottlings have been released onder the name
Edradour, but in the past some batches were bottled as 'Glenforres'.
A peated 'Balechin' variety has recently become available as well.

In the summer of 2003 some of the malt maniacs had the pleasure of visiting the distillery,
shortly after Andrew Symington (of Signatory Vintage fame) had purchased Edradour and Iain
Henderson (former manager at Laphroaig distillery) had signed on as Operation Director. It was
a beautiful day and Iain and the tour guide took their time to answer even the most maniacal
questions. Because Edradour is such a small and traditional distillery we had the opportunity
to investigate every little aspect of the distillation process.

Being (one of) the smallest distilleries in Scotland, bottlings
of Edradour showed strong batch variation during the 1990's.
After Andrew Symington took over many of the new bottlings
were special finishes with not a lot of 'distillery character' left.

Still, here's a selection of some of the various Edradour bottlings I've tried over the years.
Just remember that in this case a different batch or bottling will probably be VERY different indeed...

Edradour 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 1998, Campbell, 70cl) -
Nose: Soft and malty. Nothing offensive in the nose, but nothing to fall in love with either.
Taste: Malty and smooth. It reminded me a bit of the Dufftown 10yo OB - but less complex.
Score: 70 points - just a tad below average. Very drinkable but no high flyer.

Edradour 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2001, Pernod Ricard)
Nose: Unbalanced start with sour vomit notes. Soap. Sherried. Farmy, organic notes.
Woody. Sweet. Dusty. Interesting development; very sour after 10 minutes.
Later on more smoke emerges, while the sherry notes grow stronger.
Lemon sweets after 20 minutes. Nuttier with 5 drops of water.
Taste: Ough! Very strange at the start. Molasses & Mint. Eucalyptus?
Malty. Slightly oily. A very unpleasant chemical undercurrent. Bitter.
With time, it grows even worse. Rotting wood. Old vomit. Stomach acid.
Score: 42 points - the taste is really horrific! Batch variation or a bad cork?

Edradour 10yo 1993/2004 Burgundy Finish (57.4%, OB, cask #04/13/3, 458 bottles)
Nose: Wowie! Big and fruity. Mint. Spices and some very mild organics. Cinnamon.
It's quite spectacular, although I can't really identify a lot of the specific aroma's.
Taste: Eugh... Very herbal start. it's not exactly perfumy, but it comes close.
Cinnamon. An aspirin bitterness in the finish. Oh, how it falls from grace. Too bad...
Score: 82 points - this is a malt you have to work at. Not MOTR, that much is certain...

Edradour 10yo 1993/2004 Sauternes Finish (56.8%, OB, cask #04/11/2, 445 bottles)
Nose: Smooth and slightly oily at first, but growing more powerful quickly. Fruits.
Maybe a hint of peat? Rubber (bicycle tires). Then more spices. Cinnamon again.
Taste: Once again a bit of an odd taste. A chemical fruitiness like the last one.
It grows very, very woody in the finish. Extremely dry as well. Hints of smoke and perfume.
Candy on the palate, but not extremely sweet. Dry and woody impressions dominate with time
Score: 82 points - this is an experience... but it's probably not to everybody's liking.

Edradour 21yo 1983/2004 Port Finish (53.6%, OB, cask #03/1041, 776 bottles)
Nose: Quite mellow and malty at first, but quickly some organics emerge.
The organics open up nicely, it grows sweeter and spicier. Oriental dishes.
After tasting it I also got some weird 'Blue Curacao' notes in the nose as well.
Taste: Oy! A strange chemical sweetness, like in Blue Curacao liqueur.  Smurf whisky?
Nasty! It grows woodier and winier towards the finish, which is a good thing, really.
Score: 79 points - extremely interesting, but I wouldn't actively recommend it to anyone.

Edradour 30yo 1973/2003 (53.4%, OB, Butt #97)
Nose: Very well balanced with plumes and organics. Hints of 'Maggi'. A very pleasant surprise.
Taste: was very satisfying as well; pretty much everything there. This is good stuff.
Score: 88 points - without a doubt the best Edradour I've tried so far...

Check out my Track Record for a complete and up-to-date overview of all 'siplings' I've tried.
 
 
 

Trivia about Edradour: Soon after Andrew Symington and Iain Henderson
took over at Edradour they started distilling a peated malt under the name
'Ballechin'. With reported phenol levels of some 50ppm it is one of the most
heavily peated malts produced outside Islay. It seems the thirst for peated
malts has grown so much that they can't make enough on Islay anymore.
In E-pistle 16/16 our Canadian maniac Davin de Kergommeaux reports on his
tasting of various bottlings of Ballechin & Edradour at Whisky Live in June 2005.

Before Andrew and Iain took over Edradour had built
an unenviable reputation for batch variation. Bottles
released in the 1990's (depicted at the left) ranged
from average quality to rather poor. I think Andrew's
decision to focus on single cask bottlings and special
finishes (Sauternes, Burgundy, etc.) was just brilliant;
he turned Edradour's major weakness into a strength.

Edradour had been in the hands of American owners for almost a century when it was obtained by Campbell Distillers (a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard) in 1982. They added a visitor centre to the distillery; probably one of the first examples of what is now a pretty common feature. Edradour has the required minimum of two stills and uses mostly traditional equipment like worm tubs to cool the spirit and the last 'Morton's refrigerator' operating in the industry to cool the wort.